A Terrible Resolve
by Brenna
Summary: A member of the Bartlet Administration realizes he's made a mistake in strategy.


A Terrible Resolve by Brenna

Title: A Terrible Resolve  
Author: Brenna [(tkeefer6@home.com][1])  
Website: [http://blake.prohosting.com/wwffa/][2]  
Spoilers: "Two Cathedrals"  
Summary: A member of the Bartlet Administration realizes he made a mistake in strategy.  
Disclaimer: The West Wing and its characters are the property of Aaron Sorkin, Warner Brothers, and NBC. No Copyright Infringement is intended.  
Archive: Ask first please.  
Feedback: Love it.

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His assistant knocked quietly at his office door before entering. "Sir, the President would like to see you at your convenience. When should I tell them you'll be over?"

He had been expecting this call for the past several hours. Since watching that press conference. "Two hours."

"Yes, sir" she confirmed before leaving him to his thoughts.

_'I have no one to blame this on but myself. I just couldn't wait could I?'_ he mused. _ 'I had to put the ball in motion. I couldn't trust him to keep his word to me. No, I had to push it. Now he's lobbed the ball back to me. I know why he wants me over there. Damn it! It's not fair!'_

He turned to watch the televisions set in the far wall of his office. The screens that were tuned constantly to the news and now replayed the President's answer incessantly. The dam inside of him broke and he picked up a glass paperweight given to him by some Ladies' Auxiliary group and hurled it at one of the screens. The paperweight connected with one of the screens with enough force to shatter it. Immediately the doors to his office opened and agents streamed into the room with guns drawn. Sweeping the room with their eyes both agents took in what had happened within seconds. Still he explained aloud, "It's alright. I just got frustrated and threw something at the TVs. You can go. Maintenance can come clean it up later when I'm not here."

"Yes, sir" agreed the agents before withdrawing from the room to send the curious staffers outside back to their business. 

He sat back down at his desk; trying to think. His thoughts wouldn't stay on the problem at hand though. They kept straying to the movie he had screened with his family this weekend. Something about the movie pushed at him from the depths of his memory. He hadn't even wanted to see it, but his wife and son had. So like the consummate politician that he was, he had chosen which battle to fight and which to concede. So he had watched the movie that they had wanted and in return they'd had the dinner he'd wanted.

_'What is it about that movie that I can't remember?'_ he wondered. _'I don't have time for this now. I need to have a plan when I go over to the Oval. I need to have a strategy...not that my last strategy was such a wonderful success. What was I thinking with that poll? I just couldn't wait a few more months. Instead I backed him into a corner, and look where that got me.'_

The remaining TV's droned on in the background as he sat trying to formulate a strategy. After a few minutes he realized that they were again showing a commercial for that stupid movie.

_'It's something someone said...a real historical figure...not one of the fictional characters. Why am I obsessing on this now? In an hour I have to meet with the President, and he's going to give me a choice,' _ he confirmed to himself. _'He's going to tell me to join the team wholeheartedly or get out. He's going to ask for an apology or a resignation. An appeasement or a surrender.'_

The door to his office opened again. "Sir, it's time to leave for your meeting with the President," his assistant reminded him.

He nodded as he stood and put on his coat for the walk through the tunnel. His agents fell into step surrounding him as he left the office. He was less than a five minute walk from his meeting with the President, and still he didn't know what he was going to say.

_'Something the enemy commander said...'_ he mused. _ 'Something after the attack. Guess there's some correlation there. I launched my own surprise attack and caught the President with his pants down just like then...'_

"The President is waiting for you, sir" he was told as he approached the outer office.

"Thanks, Charlie," he told the President's aide as he walked past him into the Oval Office. As he entered he saw Bartlet standing behind his desk. He realized that the two of them were alone. The agents had withdrawn from the room. 

It was at that moment he realized what he'd been trying to remember from the movie. It was something Admiral Yamamoto had said after the strike on Pearl Harbor. Looking at the expression on President Bartlet's face, he realized that Yamamoto could have been speaking for him that day.

"John," Bartlet acknowledged him. "I think you know why you're here?"

"Yes, sir" he replied. In his mind however, he repeated Yamamoto's words to himself, _'I fear that all I have done is awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.'_

   [1]: mailto:(tkeefer6@home.com
   [2]: http://blake.prohosting.com/wwffa/



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